(Clearwisdom.net) The parents of 12-year-old Yuan Yuan were divorced. Yuan Yuan lived with his mother. In 1998, Yuan Yuan and his mom began to practice Falun Dafa. They benefited both mentally and physically.

In April of 2000, Yuan Yuan's mother was illegally detained. His father regained custody giving the reason that Yuan Yuan's mother was in detention and therefore couldn't take care of him. In 2001, Yuan Yuan's mother was illegally detained again. After she was released, Yuan Yuan strongly requested to return to live with his mother, since his father had only used violence to control him. Sometimes when his father had a quarrel with someone else, he would beat Yuan Yuan to vent his anger. One time he injured Yuan Yuan's head, and he couldn't rest his head on a pillow for more than 10 days. His grades in school declined. His thoughts were of his mother, because his mother had been very patient in helping him study, and his mother had taught him to use "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" as a guide for living. Thus, his grades were very good when he had been with his mother.

In October 2001 Yuan appealed to the court to transfer custody back to his mother. According to the law, if the child has the ability to decide (and is over ten years old), the court would consider the child's opinion. So Yuan Yuan had the right to choose to be with his mother. Yet the court used the fact that his mother practices Falun Gong as an excuse and ruled that custody should be given to the father. In a country where the law is abused like this, a 12-year-old's appeal is made completely impossible.

May 19, 2002